Pastor's Note, November 4, 2018

Let me reiterate that I am very happy to be pastor of both Saint Paul and Holy Family. We face some very real challenges, but I am excited about what I believe the Lord wants to do here. I am already starting to see very encouraging signs. I hope that you are too. That said, I would like to spend this pastor's note addressing some questions that impact my assignment.

Why does Father's academic work have to get in the way of being our priest? There seems to have been a bit of confusion as regards my obligation to complete higher studies. Regardless of my personal feelings about these, completing them is part of the assignment that I assumed by virtue of my promise of obedience to the bishop of this diocese in July. There is an added level of urgency in this task because the degree program in which I am enrolled is being discontinued in just over two years. I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve the Church by pursuing higher studies. That said, my doing so will involve sacrifices from all of us.

Why doesn't Grant County get another priest? I would like to make it very clear that Bishop Doherty and his collaborators in the chancery have expended significant effort to help provide additional priestly assistance in Grant County. However, having another priest would mean spending at least an additional $55,000 in payroll taxes, benefits, salaries and pension (The priest himself would see less than $30,000). A much larger than expected budget deficit at Saint Paul makes the cost of taking another priest prohibitive. I am talking about operating at an annual deficit of significantly more than $100,000. Holy Family is currently around $6,000 ahead of budget for the calendar year. Helping to pay for an additional priest would cost Holy Family at least $10,000 a year. In light of these numbers, it would be fair to say that Saint Paul and Holy Family share only one priest largely because our income is presently too low to provide for another withoit dipping into savings.

Why doesn't Holy Family have Mass on Sunday? In order for there to be a Sunday morning Mass at Holy Family with a single prist assigned to Grant County, either Saint Paul would have to lose a Mass on Sunday or the priest would have to celebrate four Masses on Sunday. For at least five hundred years, the Church law has made it possible for the bishop to give a priest extraordinary permission to celebrate a third Mass on Sunday. There is simply no provision for a priest to celebrate four Masses outside of unexpected emergencies on any day of the year for any reason. Presuming that we will still just have one priest in November of 2019, it is possible that we will revisit the distribution of Masses, but that process would take some months.